Cigarette turning apparatus



- C. E. PARRISH CIGARETTE TURNING APPARATUS Filed Feb. 5, 1958 Feb. 2, 1960 OIF INVENTOR clcm /noe E. Pahhii ATTORNEY United States Pate 'CIGARE'I'TE'TURNING APPARATUS Clarence E.,Parrish, Richmond, Va assignor to American .lIVIachine & Foundry Company, a corporation of New ersey Application February 5, 1958,: Serial No. 71,3,4 38= 11 Claims. (Cl. 1989-33) This invention relates to-a. cigaretteturning apparatus and method for turning filter or cork tipped cigarettes end for end.

Mouthpiece cigarettes are presently: made in cigarette making machines which discharge them side'by side in two rows onto a collector belt. The tipped ends ofthe laterally arranged cigarettes in one row facethe tipjped ends of the laterally arranged cigarettes in the adjacent row. For packaging purposes, it is desirable to. have the tip ends of both. rows facing in the same direction. It is therefore necessary to turn the cigarettes of one. row end over end so that they will facein theksame direction as the cigarettes in theadjoining row. Various'mechanical devices haveheretoforebeen developed for turning ;cigarettes end for end in this manner. Some of these'de'vices have been costly to produce, operate or maintain, or, have handled the cigarettes in a manner which has damaged the cigarettes.

An object of this invention is to provide ;a simple cigarette turning devicethat will turn tippedcigarettes end for end without leavingany undesirableindentations,on the cigarettes and will be capable of handling large quantities of cigarettes at relatively slow speeds.

Still a further object of this invention is to provide --a cigarette turning device which will receive cigarettes traveling in a horizontal direction and turn them in a vertical plane and then discharge the cigarettes for further travel in a horizontal direction. v

Another object of this invention is to provide aTcigarette turning device which will be adaptable for use with existing cigarette making machines to turn, cigarettes end for end. I

Other objects and features of the inventionwill appear as the description of the particular physical embodiment selected to illustrate the invention progresses. in the ac-. companying drawings, which form a part of this specification, like characters of reference have been applied to corresponding parts throughout the several views which make up the drawings, 7

Fig. 1 shows a double length cigarette having a double length mouthpiece there between.

Fig. 2 shows a perspective view of my improvedcigarette turn around machine. v

Fig. 3 shows an end elevationofmy improved cigarette turn around machine as seen from line 3-3 of Fig.2.

Fig. 4 is a side elevation of the vacuum plate of my turn around machine as seen from line 4-4 of Fig. 3. v Fig. 5 is a part of the vacuum vplateas seen from line 5 5 of Fig. 3. V

Fig. 6 is a variation of. my turnaround machine. I Fig. 7 is a part of a section through the vacuumtdis'k of the variation of my machine.

Fig. 8 is a viewof the variation of my machine as seen from line 88 of-Fig. -7.

My improved cigartteturn around. apparatusmriiay be used with anyconventional cigarette. making mahine either' of. the, type discharging cigarettes axially. for one which discharges the cigarettes sidev'vise. The apparatus 2 I have employed to illustratetheinventionmay be-briefly described as follows:

Cigarettes after having passedthrough the cutter 10, in a cigarette making machine, such as shownin copendiug application of George S. Dearsley, filed May 18,1955, Serial Number 509,293, will have'their mouthpiece ends 11:2 and 14 pointing in opposite directions, as shown in Cigarettes to be turned end for end maybe discharged from a plated drum 18 such as shownin copending application Serial Number 509,293, onto thecatcher-belts 1 6 and 56. The cigarettes so discharged as previouslymem tioned may be received either axially orsidewise as shown in the embodiment used to illustrate the invention. The, pairs of cigarettes having abutting mouthpiece ends after having been cut are separatedrby any suitable device such as sponge rubber rollers such .as shown inappilic'ation' Serial Number 509,293. i

The belt 16, carrying the cigarettes,rtravels inthe direc-. tion indicated by arrow 24,. over a. pair of pulleys 20 and. 22. When thecigarettes 'have reached thevacuum head 26 the cigarettes are stripped-frornthebelt 16, by stripper' plates 28 as shown in Fig.5. Each cigarette is then picked up by a vacuum, hole 32 located on the'surface 30 of the rotating vacuum head 26., r

The vacuum holes 32 are located ina circle approximately halfwayfrom the center to the periphery of the vacuum head 26. The holes 32in the upper half of the disk 26 are directly connectedtothe vacuum line 33 and the holes in the lower half .of jthe travel of disk 26 are blanked off bytheshoe 35 as shown'in Fig. 4.

Cigarettes may be restrained from twisting by having a rough faced surface such as sandpaper on the vacuum head, or as shown in Fig. 2 cigarettes may be confined in a ledge or flute 34.

When the cigarettes have rotated on the vacuum disk 26, in thedirection shown by arrow 36, the vacuum holes '32 holding the cigarettes comein front-of the shoe 35, thereby cutting off the suction, the cigarettes are there"-- fore no longer held by suction and are discharged onto thecatcher belt 38, shownin Fig. 4. The stripper-40 assists in removing -'any' cigarettes {th'atdo notflldowhwardly by themselves. v

' he belt 38'is trained over pulleys and 44 shown in Fig.2, wherein the upper run of the belt 38 travels the direction indicated by arrow 46 discharging cigarettes onto collecting plate 48. i

The other row of=c igarettes, already facing in -the-d esired direction, which do not need a turn around opera: tion, are discharged from the cigaretternaking machine onto athird catcher belt'50 from the fluted drum 18. Belt 50 travels over pulleys 52 and .54 transferring the cigar-'- rettes onto the collecting plate 43 in the direction iridicated by arrow 56. Pulley-52 is connected on the same shaft 58 with pulley 20 as shown in Fig. 3. For this reason the collector plate 48-receives cigarettes at the same rate from both sides.

lt will 'be noted that a'single drive 60 may be used to dfive'va'cuum head 26 and belts 38, '50 and 16.

'This is accomplished in the following manner. Pinion 66 drives worm 67 and'gea'r '68. Gear '58 is axially attached to vacuum disk 26 and thus drives said fdi s'k- 26. Worm 67, drives worm gear 69, which gearfis axially attached to pul1ey42, driving said pulley. Pulley 42 drives belt 38 and through-this belt drives 'pulley 44. Pulley 44 -is axially attached-to pulley 62 and this way drives pulley 62. Pulley 6 2 drives pulley 64 'througha S t drives belt '50 and through thisbe'lt ri esulle 52. Pulley 52 is axially attached to pulley 20 and drives and gear 68. Another. way to increase the turn around 7 rate of my machine is to increase the number of vacuum holes around the face of the vacuum disc. The flexibility as outlined can be used to meet the speed requirements of any cigarette making machine.

A number of other variations may be made to my turn around machine one of which is shown in Fig. 6. In this variation the vacuum head 72 has, a single slot 74 with its long centerline coinciding with the centerlines of a number of vacuum holes 76, said holes being located half way from the center of rotating disk 70 and its periphery. p

In this variation thecigarettes are fed to the rotating disk 70. The vacuum holes in line with the slot on the vacuum head have a suctional force which lifts-.the cigarettes individually. The cigarettes are held by said suction and prevented from twisting by the rough surface or indentations as outlined before. The cigarettes after being rotated, pass beyond the vacuum head and are then held onto the surface of the vacuum disk by a pair of guides 80.

Stripper fingers 82 as shown in Fig. 7 and 8, extend into groove 84, and pass by the identation 86,thereby stripping off the cigarettes 88. r

In the embodiment used to illustrate the invention the conventional collector belt of a cigarette making machine is of a width sufficient to collect two rows of cigarettes. The cigarettes discharged from the cigarette making machine are so disposed, as mentioned, that the mouth piece ends of adjacent cigarettes face in opposite directions to each other. Therefore, one of the adjacent cigarettes has to be turned end for endto make the mouth pieces of all the cigarettes face in the same direction.

My present invention is readily capable to do this with either a cigarette machine collecting cigarettes in a single row or with a machinecollecting cigarettes in a double row. In the embodiment shown in Fig. 2, two rows are employed for collecting cigarettes and in this case the belts 16, 38 and 50 are used. Where a single row of cigarettes is to be accumulated-it will be necessary to employ belts 16 and 38 so as to discharge the cigarettes which have been turned around by my device onto a collector plate 48 from a single direction.

It will be apparent from the foregoing description that I have provided an improved turn around device which is capable of operating at a very high speed without damaging the cigarettes. While I have shown pneumatic means for holding the cigarettes on the vacuum disk 26, it will be appreciated that any other suitable means could also be employed for holding the cigarettes while 7 they are being carried by the vacuum dish 26.

The invention hereinabove described may therefore be varied in construction within the scope of the claims, for the particular device selected to illustrate 'the invention is but one of many possible embodiments of the same. The invention, therefore, is not to berestricted to the precise details of the structure shown and described; 1

What isclaimed is; e g i a 1. A turn around device for cigarettes comprising a tobacco feed for feeding cigarettes to said device, a' horizontaldelivery'belt for conveying-said cigarettes, a vacuum head wherein its face travels in a-vertical plane located at the end ofsaid belt'to. receive and hold cigarettes by suction-while conveying them in a vertical plane. and -a horizontal collector belttoreceive said turned cigarettes. a it 1 7 i.

2 A turn around device comprising a'source of supply of cigarettes, a feed for feeding cigarettes mto said device, a catcher belt to receive and transfer said cigarettes, a vertical rotatable' vacuurn disk to hold cigarettes by suction and rotate them 180, a collector belt to receive said turned cigarettes and a collector station to collect said turned cigarettes.

3. A cigarette turn around device comprising a supply of mouthpiece cigarettes, a cigarette catcher belt to horizontally transfer said cigarettes from saidsource of supply, a vertical rotatable. vacuum disk located at the end of said belt, said disk having flutes located at acute angles to radial lines drawn from the center of the face of said disk to receive and rotate said cigarettes in a vertical plane and another catcher belt to receive said turned cigarettes and deliver themhorizontally in a direction opposite to that from which they came.

4. A cigarette turner for mouthpiece cigarettes comprising, a feed for delivering cigarettes to be turned, a

laterally traveling catcher belt to'receive said cigarettes and deliver them to its other end, a vertical rotatable suction disk having a plurality of flutes on its face at acute angles to radial lines drawn from the center of I said suction disk and having vacuum holes in said flutes to hold cigarettes straight without twisting, means to rotate said disk to turn said cigarettes around 180 and another catcher belt to receive said turned cigarettes.

5. A tipped cigarette turnaround apparatus comprising, a vacuum plate having a plurality of ledgesotfset to radial lines drawn from the center of said plate and having suction holes nearthecenter of said ledges to holdcigarettes to be turned end for end, a gear axially attached to said vacuum plate, a pinion to drive said gear and adaptable to be interchangeable with other sized pinions to effect a different gear ratio between said pinion and said gear, a worm axially attached to said pinion, a Worm gear driven by said worm and a pulley axially attached to and adjustable with said worm gear l to drive the said turnaround apparatus at desired speeds.

= guide them into the flutes.

7. In. a cigarette turning device comprising acatcher belt, a vertical rotatable vacuum disk located at one end of said belt, a source of supply of filter tipped cigarettes delivered. on said belt for transfer to said disk, a vacuum head located in back of said disk having a semi-circular slot, a'plurality of vacuum holes located on said disk in a circle in 'front of said slot of said vacuum head to hold cigarettes to be turned, a plurality of guides spaced in front of said disk to guide cigarettes as they are turned end for end by said vacuum disk and a'second catcher belt to receive said turned cigarettes.

8. In a cigarette turning ,device comprising a catcher belt to deliver cigarettes from a source of tipped cigarette supply, a rough faced vacuum disk having a circular groove on its face, vacuum holes located acrossthe center of said groove to receive and pick up said cigarettes by operating with the said disk to hold the cigarettesthereon during substantially 180 of rotation of said disk and thereafter release the cigarettes, a collector belt to receive said turned cigarettes and means for guiding the released cigarettes onto said collector belt.

10. A turnaround device for mouthpiece cigarettes comprising a rotating suction member, elongated suction flutes formed on said member and obliquely arranged with respect to their direction of rotation, a source of suction connected to said rotating member for applying suction to said flutes for a predetermined portion of their path of travel, a supply of mouthpiece cigarettes to be turned end for end and arranged so that they are delivered to the rotating member and held thereon by the suction applied thereto, a delivery station for delivering cigarettes serially to the flutes of said suction member, a discharge station for receiving cigarettes carried by the flutes of said suction member and a drive rotating said suction member to carry cigarettes on the surface of said suction member to said discharge station.

11. A turnaround device for mouthpiece cigarettes comprising a rotatable member, perforate openings obliquely arranged on said member with respect to their 7 direction of rotation with said member, a source of suction connected to said rotating member, means for controlling the application of suction for a predetermined distance of travel of said rotating member, a continuous supply of mouthpiece cigarettes arranged side by side, a feed for delivering cigarettes from said source of supply one at a time to said perforate openings as they pass by a pickup station, a drive for rotating said rotating member to convey cigarettes carried by said perforate member along an arc to a discharge station and a discharge station for receiving cigarettes after they have been conveyed along said are and collecting the same in side by side relationship with their mouthpiece ends turned end for end relative to their arrangement at the pickup station.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,509,752 Wheeley May 30, 1950 2,784,831 Connell Mar. 12, 1957 2,813,505 Eirinberg Nov. 19, 1957 

